After Hong Kong and Singapore, Vietnam has recently been recognized by many technology experts as having the opportunity to become the next Digital Hub in Asia due to its favorable geographical location, growth rate, and the trend of data shifting to Vietnam...
The draft information and communication infrastructure planning for the 2021-2030 period developed by the Ministry of Information and Communications sets the goal of turning Vietnam into a Digital Hub - a place to transfer, connect, store and process data in Asia so on the world.
Digital Hub is defined as a complex of data storage centers, cloud infrastructure and Internet traffic exchange of super developers, global telecommunications, information technology, digital content, providing services on a wide scale across countries and neighboring regions. To become a Digital Hub, the Draft Information and Communication Infrastructure Plan states that in addition to geographical location, broadband connection infrastructure, reliability and affordable prices, innovation ecosystem, startup support, it is also necessary to meet the criteria of complete legal infrastructure for intellectual property rights protection and personal data, readiness and potential for Internet economy development, international connectivity and cooperation.
TREND OF DATA MOVEMENT TO VIETNAM
According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, Vietnam has geographical advantages to become a regional Digital Hub, namely: located between Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia, close to large and dynamic development centers in the region and the world, where many economies play the role of growth engines of the region and the world; located on the trans-Asian highway initiated by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific to connect the Asian highway, developing road trade between Asian and European countries.
Vietnam is also located on the main axis of the East-West Economic Corridor (EWEC) connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, creating great potential for fast, efficient and low-cost freight transport. With a long coastline and many areas suitable for building seaports, including many deep-water ports, Vietnam plays a key role in the economy and in providing logistics services to countries in and outside Asia
At the same time, Vietnam possesses a huge and valuable digital resource, which is human resources with a young population, passion for mathematics and high programming skills. “Digital Hub not only has Internet connections but also comes with an ecosystem including telecommunications infrastructure, digital infrastructure, technology, human resources, etc.”, CMC Telecom Creative Director Le Anh Vu emphasized.
The opportunity for Vietnam to become a Digital Hub of Asia is also demonstrated by the number of Internet users and especially the data traffic that is tending to move to Vietnam. According to statistics, Vietnam currently has about more than 72 million Internet users (of which some applications such as Facebook, the number of users/accounts is up to 75.6 million active accounts; Zalo with more than 74.1 million active accounts...).
The number of Internet users of more than 72 million people is always considered a potential market and opportunity for any digital service company globally.
In particular, Internet content is user-generated, while with the advantage of more than 72 million users, digital content applications, especially videos such as Youtube, Tiktok, Facebook, etc., will often be localized to help local users use the service fastest and experience the best service. Therefore, when a market is considered potential and can become a data transit point to support neighboring markets, technology "giants" will calculate to place and store data (on DC storage infrastructure) locally.
(Source: https://vneconomy.vn)